ARC Research Network

Discovering the past and present to shape the future: networking
environmental sciences for understanding and managing Australian biodiversity
(Environmental Futures Network)

This network was a 5 year ARC funded program (2005-2010) aimed to bring together
specialists with a wide range of research interests, to pool their ideas
and expertise to allow us to detemine how to best describe Australia's current
biodiversity and the history leading up to this. Our geographical limit
is the Australian continent, and includes marine, freshwater and terrestrial
environments with a strong focus on using the past to explain the present.

The network was based around three main themes:The
impact on biodivesity of -

global climate change, past and future

geo-historical (non-climatic) processes

the arrival and spread of humans

The Network aimed to interact directly with land managers to both inform
research directions and to impart useful information for management planning.
We believe this will lead to an internationally recongnised multi-disciplinary
approach to the major problems confronting both Australia and the world
in coming years.

This network is the result of the merger of four seed-funded
networks with the following titles:

Understanding the Australian Ecosystem: integrating contemporary and
historical perspectives on the evolution, ecology and management of
Australia's living resources

Innovative science for sustainable use of marine biodiversity goods
and services

Networking environmental science to achieve integrated management
of Australian terrestrial biodiversity in an era of environmental change

The Network filed its last Annual Report March, 2010 and concluded operation in early 2011. For any queries relating to this Network or information found on this website, you can email here.

Network funded projects in a snapshot:

Assembling a plant fossil record database from
paper journal source to an on-line resource. This will include all
Cenozoic plant macrofossil records from Australia in the first instance
and may then be expanded to include New Zealand and the Cretaceous
records.

An interactive identification guide to Australian
invertebrates for students, ecologists, and environmental agencies
and assessment companies.

SahulTime: An Interactive Exploration of Australia's
Cultural and Natural History. SahulTime offers innovative ways to
explore temporal data encompassing several discipline areas of study
using a web browser, similar to the GoogleEarth interface. For highlights
of this project follow this
link

Development of tools to extend biodiversity
scenarios to climate change impacts scenarios and establish a new
global 'biodiversity observation network' (GEO BON)

Enhance end-user collaborations (such as Dept
of Conservation and Biota Pty Ltd) via an on-line dtatbase resulting
from outcomes of an earlier Network funded project that integrated
various research efforts on short-range endemic taxa for arid regions
in Australia.

Investigating Australia's past depositional
regimes by accessing intact sedimentary sections (or core samples)
to search for fossils as a result of the mining expansion in southern
Australia. This will result in a web resource highlighting new fossil
locations and potential for future research opportunities and industry
partnerships.